First “long walk” last night. 8km. RJ was keen to join in and he boxed on well enough for the first 6k. Started whinging like a bastard for the last two though – to the point where I considered trying-out the achilles to see if I could run ahead and lose him. Was like walking with a thorn in your sock.
With 48 days until original planned taper, I am reconing I will simply not taper more then 4-5 days now. I won’t have the volume or accumulated fatigue to warrant anything longer. So now I have 55 days until taper, I can relax a little more. It’s a bit like when (unemployed) George Costanza tells Jerry that he is stressed and needs a holiday.
Weight – “Scotty-mate” at the gym did the range of weights and measures on me yesterday. 22% body fat shows just how much is available for losing. Even to get down to 10% would yield up 9.6kg. While my weight has not started to climb again, the consistent losses I had going have stopped in concert with the ceasation of running. I may have to go back to being a bit conscious of how much and what goes in my mouth – which is a tad depressing to be honest – I was enjoying the freedom.
Scotty-mate, (at least that’s how he introduced himself. “Yeah, g’day, yeah, I’m Scotty-mate”) is a big dude (about 6’3 in the old money) and fitter than your average pit-bull, though only a marginally more interesting conversationalist. I recon he is only about 22yo, but in the space of our 20 minutes together, recounted a barrage of stories about his time playing for the Panthers. But he was super friendly, enthusiastic and polite. Sure, he says “fuck” a lot, but its so well buried amongst the “yeah”s, “mate”s, and “yeah-mate-absolutely”s, that you don’t really notice. Scotty-mate wants to do me a program, which I tried to resist, but it’s either compulsory or Scotty-mate wasn’t listening “you gotta be LEAN mate. Fuck-yeah, get the L-E-A-N up mate….. metabolism mate….. yadda yadda..” he was losing me.
First endurance swim – done. The Garmin shows a significant fall away in speed (can’t think of a better term than speed, but it certainly wasn’t “speedy” in the normal sense of the word) after 2.2km, so this is something to keep working on. But in the end, I am going to make the swim. It’s just a question now of how long it takes, and what state I’m in at the end of it. Will have another go on Monday 12th (day off) and dove-tail it into a long practice ride.
Riding – Nothing special last few weeks, but it’s still solid. Did the TT solo this morning and sat between 34.1 and 34.6 average for each lap. Breezy and a bit cool also, and head wasn;t really in the game – so a decent outcome really. Just need a very long continuous ride at decent tempo now to top up the confidence.
Run – Is a disaster. Achilles are rooted at the moment – From Rob Standen’s detailed description, I understand the issue to be that the elastic collagens that make up the tendon, when they’re damaged, are replaced in the body of the tendon by inelastic material. So when the tendon is stretched violently the inelastic materials are coming un-bonded (tearing). Rob even asked if it was too late to get my money back, which is hardly a vote of confidence. So at the moment it's strapped up, and my “run training” is to get in as many long walks as possible for a month or so.
Still chuggin
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